The expert thing and global warming

Okay, so I have made myself into some kind of an expert according to this blog, but what does that mean and why?
First I no way did I every intend to be an expert, I just wanted to be a bench chemist, that is the work I love.
I did not go for a masters degree because that would mostly mean administrative work and i really wanted to be on the bench. I did not want to get a PhD, but obviously with the peer reviewed research i have done, I guess I could have, but that is not what I wanted to be known as.
What I wanted to do was two fold - I wanted to feel useful to others and i wanted to satisfy my curiosity.
The job at the Health Department was the door, my boss was the vehicle, he let me "go" in anything environmental as long as we did not have to spend too much money getting there.
When i worked for private industry, what you did with a sample was strictly limited to what you were asked to find, even if you "saw" hints of something that might be important.
At the Health Department, if I wanted to look at chloride for every sample that came into the lab, I could. If I decided nutrients were a was of time for beach samples, it was my decision.
The restriction was my curiosity.
That of course led to the first paper on softener discharge and increased salt levels in the water nearby wells.
The learning programming languages and databases help all of that, I could compile information easier and look at more variables with much greater ease.
Curiosity is then my major thing. If i saw nitrite in well water, i looked for bacteria. If they had a softener treatment on the water, I looked for chloride levels.
Learning about bacteria at beaches help begin processes at a national level.
I was just curious.
And that brings me acknowledgment from state and Federal scientists, that certified me as a expert, but it was all curiosity, always asking questions. Always asking: "What is this telling me?"
Global warming - I said i was going to say something about this.
It is based on a simple observation this year.
I have lived in Connecticut 33 years and seen 33 winters and 33 Thanksgiving and I always wanted to have parsley from my garden in the feast.
This is the first tine in 33 years that has happened.
Global warming is real.

What has happen, we have done to ourselves!

This is not about the dump, even though the Advocate wrongly says the underground water for North Stamford is bad.
No, this is about a whole host of things that have happened as we push "suburbia" further into undeveloped land.
The first portion of this is Lyme disease, it was discovered relatively recently, but in all actuality, it has existed for a long time.
As we pushed housing developments further into the woods, we eliminated the various predators of deer and the white footed mouse. The change in species allowed a proliferation of both and Lyme and the tick became more prevalent. This is not my study, this was a study done in Westchester county and clearly categorized the changes in species, but anyone could easily tell that the deer population has increased.
The second portion is Long Island Sound - this year there were fewer fish than ever before and everyone who has concerns is worried because all the things they have done to "clean up" the Sound have failed miserably.
How we changed the Sound and made it dependent on our "organic" pollution (Read treatment plant waste) and then fed into it all the things we put on ur lawns to make it prety has killed the Sound. Although I am involved, the biggerstudies have been done by the Marine fisheries division of NOAA and some graduate students in New York.
The third portion has to do with our drinking water - This is more complex, but still our fault.
Small farms , which prospered after World War II, did so using the new and amazing chemicals we made to control pests. Soon it was not profitable to have a farm of only a 100 acres or so and the land became more valuable as real estate. Small farms were subdivided into lots where houses were built and who would ever think that they were time bombs? They were away from public water and wells were drilled.
So for 30 to 50 years, these homes have been pulling down the clean out products of the farmer. the land was not pristine, it was hazardus, for after every spray with these "wonder" chemicals, the farmer had to clean out his canisters and those become hot spots.
Others of us dumped still more chemicals into land fills and backyards and into septic systems never dreaming that there would ever be a problem.
This has been found by epidemiologist studing developed farm land and cancer clusters.
We did it to our selves in our precieved needs and our lack of understanding.
All of these occur because

H2S not out of the picture

The other day, as I was relaxing a bunch of chemical "balancing" equations came to mind, mostly having to do with the Long Island Sound Oxygen deprivation.

2O2 + H2S + CaCO3 → H2CO3 + CaSO4
NH4+ + 2O2 → NO2 + 2H2O
NO2 + O2 → H2O + NO3-

The reality is that we are getting a lot of low oxygen levels with no or little plankton/algae present.
What i saw in the sediment suddenly came to life as I realized that it was the reaction of H2S with carbonates, using up significant oxygen in the process.
The issue Art Glowka brought up for consideration is not out of the equation, rather may be an even more important part of it.
He brought to mind cyano bacteria, bacteria which fix nitrogen into ammonia and then to Nitrite and then on to Nitrate. They are not facultative anaerobic organisms and so need oxygen to survive, unlike the organisms that are and many times produce H2S as a byproduct.
The high level of Sulfate in the water fits the balanced equation.
Still asking questions about all of this, so this is not an end post.

H1N1 Influenza A - update for Stamford

Please refer inquiries for H1N1 vaccine to our website (www.cityofstamford.org) -- link on front page, or our hotline 977-4213. We are now extending the vaccine to healthy children 2 years to 6 years of age and healthy non-pregnant parents, care-givers, and household contacts of infants less than 6 months of age.

Questions and more questions

As I scratched my thoughts about H2S and Hypoxia, several new things have emerged.
First a paper published on Lake Erie (so definitely not by me) gave phosphorus and phosphate a new role as the limiting factor in algae growth in marine waters (this has always been true of Fresh water, but the thinking has always been that it was different for salt water).
This apparently has gotten many from the EPA to question their direction in the Sound (about time).
Two questions were posed to me by Art Glowka.
The first was concerning cyano-bacteria, which are now known as blue-green algae. They fix Nitrogen, meaning that they take available nitrogen and turn it to ammonia, which in turn is changed to Nitrite (2 oxygens) and then Nitrate (3 oxygens). Could this be a pathway causing Hypoxia?
The second has to do with a graph, long published in the New York water quality report and now omitted, showing the beginning of significant Hypoxia in the Long Island Sound occurring around 1977.
This coincides with two events, me moving up to Connecticut and the beginning of sewage treatment plant "clean up".
Is it all coincidental? For one part of that, I certainly hope so, the other is a question that we may try to answer when I try to get back to the Long Island Sound.

What is the deal (H1N1 Infuenza A novel)

The CDC stopped tallying cases,
They estimated the US has had already had 1 million cases!
The Normal Flu season does not start until late November, we are experiencing large numbers of Flu cases...
it is ALL H1N1 at this point.

The vaccine is available, just like all other flu vaccines, except they have a way to give it with out sticking you.

Get the vaccine...if your doctor recommends it.

influenza

I saw this in a public health presentation and knew it must be posted.
Normally i am very serious on the site and the various influenzas we are dealing with have many people concerned.
The vaccines are here. I got the regular one already and the H1N1 will be distributed soon, I will get that one also.
How about you?